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The Institute
The Institute was a facility dedicated to the study of anomalous people that the Society may find "interesting". This included violators of the 1955 Family Dissolution Act, which stated people cannot seek out their biological family. In the early 1960s, an initiative was proposed by Amy Castillo, the Director of New Education Initiatives, for the abandoned former-government buildings in Washington DC. Michael Witten, the Chief Policy Administrator for the Society, had been excited to read it, but was horrified by the proposal instead, as it included no psychological or emotional support for child-bearers or children. Castillo was offering drugs and reprogramming in their place. There were schematics for machines that looked to Wiiten to be damaging and contrary to the supposed point of the facility. The plan also mentioned a huge security budget and a "re-educational" programme for both children and adults who violated the Age-10 rule (forbidding contact with birth family after age 10). When the proposal failed to get past Witten, Castillo decided to leave the Department of Child Development. In 1961 she took an executive position in the private sector, likely KR Development, which had recently opted out of a contract to build new schools and childhood centres and had Vishwathi Ramadoss on the Advisory Board. The company purchased a 150,000 acre plot of land near Chesapeake Bay (Maryland, former United States), which Witten suspected was going to be used to build Castillo's "Institute."Season 3, Reel #10: June 21, 1961 Later speculation in transport circles indicated that the building was, indeed, located in Maryland. According to the Pilot, some cargo pilots were wary of flying over the area it was rumoured to be located.Black Box Cassette #1: PHL to PWM Witten wrote a letter asking Castillo to consider sending a revised version of her plan to the Governance Centre. He believed they could "refocus" the project into a more helpful rehabilitation initiative, rather than an institute that punished people for having emotions. Some people, such as Claudia Atieno and Archie McPherson, actively believed in the Institute's existence, and the involvement of Vishwathi Ramadoss, although they were regarded as conspiracy theorists in the early 70s.Season 2, Cassette #4: Bardo Museum (1975) By 1980, however, the Institute was recognised as a real facility in some capacity. Officially it was for "ensuring that society's new precepts aren't disrupted." Not much further was known to the public. Roimata Mangakāhia believed that there was reason to be "more than suspicious" that patients at the Institute came to significantly more harm during "recalibration" than whatever caused them to be admitted in the first place.Season 2, Cassette #8: Ohara Museum of Art (1980) Although there was apparently no real proof, some people like the Pilot's friend Callie believed that the Institute did experiments on criminals, artists, miscreants, subversives, the poor, and children. Additionally, the Pilot believed that people who did not wish to give up their unborn children would be put through regimen to make them forget the pregnancy altogether.Black Box Cassette #3: MDW to YYZ While Archie believed that the Institute existed specifically to imprison and torture people, Hester Wells, who worked at the Institute for some time, claimed that they wanted to study these violators so that they could better understand human psychology and improve the technology that enabled the manipulation of memory and other brain functions. This was achieved through close observation of behaviour as well as physical and mental experimentation.Season 1, Cassette #5: Focus, Nose The Institute itself was a large, white building, shaped like a crescent moon made out of interconnected boxes. To the south was dense forest, the east mountains, and running from the mountains was a river that went to a harbour in the southwest. Beyond the trees were fields, and in the distance a city.Season 1, Cassette #2: Anxiety, Stomach The Institute was surrounded by pine and maple trees, and somewhere nearby was a grove of cedar trees and a waterfall. The garden in the Institute smelled of lavender. Standard patients were required to wear their designated smock and indoor slippers. In each patient's room there was a bed, a chair, a shelf, a barred window, and a camera. There was a classification system for patients, although the specifics of this are unknown. When taken to the Extensive Studies Lab, Oleta was a 'Class L' patient. Names were not used, for staff or patients. The Extensive Studies Lab Program came in at least three levels, one of which involved implanting an advanced tracking device. It was staffed by security nurses and monitors. There was also armed security on staff at the Institute, carrying rifles.Season 1, Cassette #9: Loss, Hands The stock was likely supplied by KR Development, which was a company believed to deal in illegal weapons. Trivia * The Institute's crescent moon shape is likely a reference to Thomas More's 'Utopia' in which the island Raphael studies is shaped like a crescent moon.Utopia (book) - Wikipedia References Category:Locations Category:Organisations